Novella of Nakari: Snuggles and Systems
By: Monica Vix


The rays of sunlight barely coated the two figures lying in the same bed. Breaking in through the window blinds and drawing stripes of sun against the bunny and shark’s bodies, the dawn of a new day was enough to wake the blue-grey shark. With a groan, the amputee girl wiggled awake. She felt the warm embrace of Monica’s fluffy arms around her midsection, the limbs even partially pinning the shortened arms. Nakari slowly opened her eyes, her irises adjusting to the bright, sunlit room.


Looking towards the bunny, the amputee shark huffed with a soft smile. Nakari saw how close the mostly naked rabbit was to her! It was hard to believe that they slept together in only underwear, rather shocking to the slippy shark. Nakari wasn’t even wearing her prosthetics to let her move without Monica’s help. Pulling away with her stumpy, half-length arm against the rabbit, the shark grunted. She could barely see the digital clock display over the sleeping, snoring bunny’s body. It was early. A little earlier than she cared to wake up. Allowing herself to rest back into Monica’s warmth, the stubs of Nakari’s arms rolled over the lapine’s sides, feeling the corset piercings and just enjoying the soft sensation of her fur. 


A sigh came from the shark as she nuzzled in close, pressing her nose into the warmth of the rabbit’s neck, affectionately snuggling in as close as she could. “Good morning~” Nakari whispered out, knowing that her new girlfriend wasn’t even awake yet. All she wanted to do was to say something in the silence of the room and the loving words seemed like the best thing to say. A groan came from the bunny’s maw, her arms grasping the shark. Nakari was squeezed closer like she was a plush toy, her back popping from the intensity of the hug! She didn’t mind, snickering quietly as she rested against the brown rabbit, almost using her like a pillow. It was surprising that Monica wasn’t even awake from the force of the hug.


Everything felt overwhelmingly tingly and fuzzy, the warmth of her partner filling all of Nakari’s brain with pleasure and energy to just… do things! But there was no doing anything without her prosthetics, which were left to charge on the floor and that she needed help to put on. The sort of nervous energy was only held back by the desire to not wake the bunny before she wanted to wake up herself, leaving the shark with the only option: laying and napping right after waking up. 


It only took about ten or so minutes for the bunny to stir. Monica let out a soft whine as she turned over. The awareness of how she moved carefully around the shark, as if she was a fragile ceramic, was all the sign that Nakari needed to know that the bunny was awake. A wide smile crossed Nakari’s face as her stumpy arms pressed against the rabbit, who was now partially laying on top of her. 


“Good morning~” She whispered a second time. looking up to watch the emerald eyes of the bunny open upon hearing the shark speak. A blush quickly flushed through Nakari’s cheeks as she saw the sleepy, yet clearly affectionate and smiling expression on the lapine. “Did you, uh… sleep well?” The shark spoke, her nervousness starting to come back while having the awake bunny lay on her stomach and chest. 


The brown bunny pressed her face against the shark’s soft chest, nuzzling her way up to her neck with an affectionate churring sound. “Good morning, Nakari. I slept well, I had a warm shark to snuggle~” Monica teased, planting a kiss on the pinned shark’s neck. “What about you? Did I squeeze you a lil too hard in my sleep?” She joked, laying against the amputee as if Nakari was nothing more than a cuddly little cushion.


Shaking her head, the shark only wrapped her short and stubby stumps around the rabbit, barely trying to hold Monica. “N-no, it was fine. Do you, uh… have any plans for the day?” She asked, “I got to go to an appointment and then I got some practice after that, so…” The shark squirmed, feeling the fingers of the bunny tickling against her sides while trapped within the warm embrace.


“Nope, not really. Could walk you around town, if you want. Maybe go shopping and get some… breakfast? Lunch?” She wasn’t aware of the time, sitting up and turning to look towards the clock to check it. As she turned away, the soft embrace of Nakari’s lips to her cheek caught the bunny off guard! Her attention turned from the clock to the smug, shy smile on her girlfriend’s face. “Do you want me to hide your limbs from you again? Get you all helpless and all to myself?” She said with a laugh, laying down on the shark and wrapping her arms tightly around the blue scales of her back. 


Groaning with the weight of the slightly chunky bunny on her, Nakari flailed her shortened limbs. “N-no… can you let me up and help me get my prosthetics back on?” She asked casually with a soft whine, huffing as it was hard to breathe with the rabbit pressing down on her chest. 


With a sigh, the rabbit peeled herself off of the shark, helping the blue scaled girl sit up on the bed. Almost wordlessly, the routine of putting on the prosthetics was the same as always. First, each of the limbs were taken off their special charging station and set on the soft bed. Then, the first cuff was softly being placed against the stub of the right leg and the locking mechanism firing, sending a slight jolt of pain to the shark. Monica took it slow and gentle as she activated each of the four limbs, starting with the legs and working up to do each of the hands. All of the black and white limbs were attached to the pale blue scales, Nakari groaning in pain as she flexed the slender, mechanical fingers.


“Thank you.” The shark said softly, wrapping her half mechanical arm around the rabbit in an affectionate side hug. “Do you… want to go out and get breakfast?” She said, somewhat awkwardly as she saw it as their first true date after talking about becoming girlfriends the night prior. Nakari felt the brown bunny next to her get up, the white furred hand against her back encouraging the shark to follow Monica to stand.


“Sure!” The bunny churred, with a wide smile at the prospect of going out to eat with the slightly more romantic tone to it. “I’m just going to take a quick shower, first.” Giving payback for the surprise kiss to her cheek, the rabbit leaned in and placed a smooch right on the slightly shorter shark’s nose! Monica laughed as she stepped away swiftly so as to not give Nakari the chance to strike again. Disappearing past the corner of the door and darting away to the bathroom before the shark could even react, Monica was gone from view in an instant!


Stunned for a moment with blush erupting into her cheeks, Nakari was left alone in their shared room. Gently, one of her mechanical hands pressed against her face, holding the warmed and red cheek. Moments passed, Nakari not yet recovering from the blatant display of affection so suddenly on such a sensitive part of her face. With a soft sigh and shake of her head, the shark walked towards the closet while passing the other twin bed that Monica would usually sleep in, if the two didn’t cuddle together. 


Still a little sluggish, the blue shark reached into the closet and began to pull out clothes for herself. She was barely able to hear the running water of the shower just a room over. Thoughts of the brown bunny being naked and wet started to pierce into her somewhat confused and overwhelmed mind. The thought permeated as she dragged out a white tee-shirt, pulling it over her head, displacing the black hair as it was set over her body. As the mechanical limbs set the cloth in position over the sports bra, Nakari couldn’t stifle the erotic feelings burning up in her body.


In the moment that she sat on Monica’s bed with cut off jeans in her white plastic fingers, the shark was completely thankful for the fact that hormone therapy helped hide her arousal. Barely able to even see her genital slit through the panties, the shark hurriedly pulled on the navy-blue jeans onto her body, up the white and black legs. They looked nice and served the extra purpose of hiding any potential arousal. Flustered and frustrated, the shark zipped and buttoned the jean shorts, making them fit snuggly to her hips.


Still somewhat lost in thought, the shark groaned and laid back on the bed belonging to the bunny, completely infatuated and unable to fully form coherent thoughts of her feelings. It felt nice having her around, more so than it did before the two were fully together like this. It felt reassuring in an odd way, knowing that Monica was there to be with Nakari for more than just the weird amputee situation she had to deal with day in and day out. Having someone with such a forceful personality was enough to drag the timid, shy shark out of this rut of quietness and into a space where she wanted to fulfill her old baseball dreams, even with the weird prosthetics.


It then clicked like a light switch in Nakari’s mind. The shark sat up, eyes darting towards the clock. Even though it was early, not even 10am yet, something felt… off about the time. Reaching for her phone stuck charging on the nightstand, the phone read 10:51am in bright white letters on her cutesy anime background. Shock filled her system as she shot up off of the bed, the short hair falling into her wide indigo eyes as she quickly scrambled out of the room.


“Monica, it’s daylight savings! It changed over today!” Nakari screamed while going past the bathroom, her mechanical legs pushing against the hardwood flooring outside of the closed door. “I got to go to my appointment! I’ll meet you for lunch, just text me where!” The exasperated shark called out while running to the door of the apartment.


“Okay!” The rabbit called out from the bathroom, “Have fun and stay safe on your run!” Monica gave a few simple words of encouragement before the sound of the apartment door opening and closing accompanied the sound of the water falling over the brown bunny. 


…


Nakari exited the apartment complex that she lived in and hit the ground of the sidewalk going at a light jog. The weight of her body felt the same as ever, the prosthetic limbs being nothing but a support as she briskly moved along the familiar path. Whirring and humming of cars passed on the street to the side, the shark preferring to move by her own two legs and their mechanical supports than hop in the driver’s seat. Hell, even the passenger seat was something she would pass up!
        
The little city that the shark lived in was somewhat lively today, a handful more people on the sidewalks than usual for this hour. Nakari continued to jog along, keeping her stamina in check as she took a direct path to the prosthetist’s office just a ways away. Every other week the shark took a trip down there for an appointment, mainly a checkup on the somewhat experimental equipment to make sure there was no degradation of the structures within. The limbs she used to walk and do basic, everyday tasks were a top priority to keep in shape.


As she walked across the concrete sidewalk, nothing changed within the city that she lived in. A building was still in the process of being made, the brand-new coffee shop designed like a modern art installment which contradicted some of the older stores nearby, and portions of the sidewalk were still cracked by a growing tree. There was another store that was taking down decorations from Christmas finally, the faux snow coverings on the tables being stuffed away into a large cardboard box by an exhausted looking rodent. It was a cozy city, not too big and not too little for the strolling shark as she made her way to one of the largest buildings; a college funded hospital and experimenting lab.


Nakari slipped into the office and checked in for her 11:30 appointment, barely making it on time and getting lucky enough to see the doctor right away. Stepping up the flight of stairs two steps at a time to press open the hefty door, the shark grunted as she walked into the office without much fanfare. A green bird stood within the office, filing papers and flipping a pen across a white sheet in a fluid, somewhat messy chicken scratch of a signature. Dr. Grace looked up and gave a smile across her beak upon standing, approaching Nakari with open wing-arms. 


“Nice to see you drop in! Have they been giving you any issues?” The green bird said, getting straight to the point as she took tools to the shark’s hand. The avain began inspecting after giving a light handshake. Her yellow eyes looked over each segment of the arm, not poking or prodding at the beginning as she looked over the structural integrity of the shell.


With a shake of her head, Nakari allowed the rather blunt and to the point doctor to look at the prosthetics she created. “Not at all. Is there… anything I should know about? I got practice tonight for a baseball game tomorrow and I really don’t want them breaking on me again.” She sighed, rolling her eyes as she thought about it. “Playing half a game with one arm wasn’t fun.”


Nodding at the comment, Dr. Grace directed the shark to sit on a chair. “Didn’t you do the pitching for that half of the game and your team still won? Was there anything worth winning then, anyways?” The bird said, half-listening. She was completely consumed in the work of the arms. The access to the nerves was slightly disconnected so she could partially take off one of the plastic protectors, taking a look at the more intricate machinery underneath.


“I told you to warn me before that!” Nakari winced as her arm felt loose and limp, the mechanical fingers on her observed arm falling back into an open palm position. Huffing as she looked away, finding the process of the artificial internals being played with unsettling, the shark sighed. “It was only a game for fun and a little championship. It wasn’t really anything big, especially since most of them were disabled like me.” She spoke somewhat longingly with a smile on her lips. “Honestly, I was surprised the ones in wheelchairs were able to outrun me back then, when I was barely used to these things.”


There was a smile as the bird gave a warning in the form of a tap on the arm that the rest of the limb was being disconnected, flipping the switch and sliding the plastic coated metal arm off the stump. “Disabilities affect people in different ways, even if it’s the same exact issue. If someone else was missing the lower half of their limbs like you, they may be okay with it and not even come to someone like me for help.” Dr. Grace expressed the situation of how disabilities are, definitely flexing her degree in a handful of sentences. The scholarly bird stepped away with the Nakari’s dominant arm and began to examine it under a powerful scope, holding glasses at her beak.


Giving a slow nod as she understood, the shark used her other prosthetic hand to touch her now chilling stump. “I guess I can see that. It… sometimes doesn’t bother me as much as you’d think. If I didn’t have the prosthetics, it would be harder, but I wouldn’t be uncomfortable without it.” Feeling the scarred flesh and looking at her stump, almost oblivious to her arm being inspected across the room. A soft sigh came out of the shark’s mouth before she spoke again. “I could go days without wearing them, but I’d… feel pretty bad about being so dependent on people, you know?”


“Nakari,” Dr. Grace began to laugh, taking the arm back towards the shark and helping her put it back on, “Should I start charging for therapy, too? You know I have a minor in psychology.” She joked while taking the other arm off, making it extremely telegraphed that she was about to separate the nerve connectors. “If these help you in your day-to-day life and help you feel better, that’s great. But, if you ever find someone willing to take complete care of you without half of your arms or legs, let me know. I can at least design some caps so your limbs don’t get sore or bruised from you becoming effectively a quadruped.” The doctor took the half limb away and began to fiddle with the internals of it as well, making sure everything about it was stable and strong.


The shark uneasily laughed at the joke for a moment, shaking her head and blushing with embarrassment with how she was talking to her doctor about the emotional side of it. “I can’t pay two therapists and a doctor at once with my healthcare.” Nakari said somewhat seriously, partially taking it as a joke as she laughed it off. “Anyways, uh…” She said, quickly changing subjects, “How is it looking? Is everything turning out okay so far?”


There was a nod and an affirmative caw. “Your arms look perfectly fine, so no losing your arm for the practice tonight or the game tomorrow. Now, let me see those legs. Don’t want you falling flat on your face in that dirt.” Dr. Grace cooed softly, coming to reattach the arm and detach the two legs, looking over the slightly simpler limbs at the same time for efficiency’s sake. “Losing an arm temporarily is one thing, but diving face first into that dirt? You might as well ask to become a quintuple amputee, especially with those sharp teeth of yours. Don’t want you biting your tongue off because of me being sloppy.”


With an uneasy chuckle again, Nakari could only nod. “You’re right. Don’t want to, you know… not be able to talk without a phone to type on.” She joked, only to have her phone buzz in her pocket. As her ears perked up, displacing the black hair, the shark pushed one of her prosthetic hands into her jean pocket to draw out the device. “Oh, uh… do you think you can hurry up?” The timid shark said, reading over a text message from Monica, pressing the phone to her chest. “I gotta meet someone soon and I don’t really… want to keep them waiting.” She said, being intentionally light on the details. Nakari did not want to say that she had a date with her roommate to her doctor who already knew a lot about her. 


“Let me guess, you got a game to get to? Last time our appointment was cut short, it was because you were late for an important Dungeons and Dragons game.” The bird sighed, opening up the legs and beginning to fiddle with the mechanics within, testing them with a small probe. “Got to slay another… what was it, a void angel or something?” Dr. Grace teased the shark about her interests in a vaguely encouraging way. Over time, the bird has become somewhat decent friends with Nakari, although not to the point of seeing each other outside of their every other week appointments. 


Hesitant to speak, the shark flushed and squeezed her legs together, pulling her entire body together into more of a clump as she let out a soft whine. “N-no, not this time. It’s, uh…” She struggled to spit it out. It was the first time that she’s been dating since her original accident, let alone since she has had her prosthetics! “I’m going out on a date with… a friend.” Nakari finally whispered out, blush filling her blue face to make it look a little redder, indigo eyes adverted to the ground beneath her stubby legs. 


This almost instantly piqued the interest of the bird, Dr. Grace looking up from the leg with such a start that the probe hit a wire, causing the right foot to flex almost unnaturally without causing damage to it. “You’re dating? How long have you known them? Boyfriend, girlfriend, or the other stuff I… always forget about? What do they do for a living?” The questions came left and right as the yellow eyes shimmered with intensity. A smile formed on the beak as the doctor saw the shark blushing and shyly smiling. 


“She’s my… roommate…” Nakari said, rubbing her mechanical arms against her elbows. “We’ve been together for a while because I needed someone to help with my prosthetics and I feel… weird about living at home still.” The shark was struggling to put her thoughts to words and make them coherent, especially without saying too much. “I met her just a month or two after I met you and got these prosthetics. And, uh…” She paused, taking Dr. Grace’s question on her new partner’s profession, “I don’t… know what she does for a living? All I know is she manages to pay for her half of the apartment bill and I get the other with my disability stuff.”


As the conversation continued, the bird scuttled over with the prosthetic legs again and sat down next to the shark, a look of concern on her green feathered face. “If you don’t know by now, you should definitely ask, right?” Dr. Grace said in a firm and almost motherly voice. She set the black and white mechanical feet down on the floor in front of Nakari. “Regardless, it’s a good sign! You’re opening up again and are exploring new ideas like this. The last major development like this was you getting back into baseball, back when these things were glorified oven mitts.” She laughed while touching the shark’s mechanical hand, feeling her own handiwork on the digits and special device. 


There was an awkward silence that hung in the air for a moment, stinging like a bee to the back of the neck. Nakari reached down to the mechanical leg and slipped her stump into the cuff like socket of the prosthetic, sucking her teeth while flipping the switch to reconnect it. “Y-yea… you’re right there.” The shark groaned as she put her other leg to the other prosthetic, repeating the process with her eyes closed to avoid watching it. “But, uh… I’m gonna get going. Was there anything wrong or that I should be aware of or…?” The restless shark said while standing to her reconnected feet, struggling to balance for a moment before catching herself. 


Pulling herself up as well, the green feathered bird gave a pat to Nakari’s back with a smile. “Nothing bad from what I can see, even with you rushing me a little.” She joked more than anything. “Hope your practice goes well and your date goes even better. Knock ‘em out of the park and knock ‘em dead!” The older Dr. tried to relate to her younger patient with the slight double wordplay of game and date encouragement, being playful and funny enough to get a constrained laugh from Nakari.


“I’ll do what I can. I know at the very least I can… talk! And run!” Hesitating for a moment, the shark wrapped her mechanical arms around Dr. Grace, giving the bird a gentle squeeze. “Both are… at least a little thanks to you.” She said in pure sincerity, not trying to be snarky or make a joke at all. Feeling the feathered wing like arms wrap around her back, Nakari smiled before slowly pulling away.


The shark left the hospital with a bit of pep in her step, the feeling in her prosthetics seeming almost… lighter, even though nothing was changed. Nakari stepped back out onto the concrete sidewalk and began her journey to meet with Monica for lunch. It wasn’t too long of a walk from the hospital, the shark still opting to jog to get there quicker and not keep her date waiting. After ten or so minutes, the shark saw the rabbit sitting outside of a cozy little deli, her long brown hair tied up in a pony tail with her ears pinned between her back and the chair. 


The rabbit turned and looked over her shoulder, giving a smile as she saw Nakari approaching. “Hey there! I hope you don’t mind, but I got some chips as an entrée.” Monica said as she got up, stepping towards the shark for a hug. “How did your appointment go? Everything okay with your parts?” She asked with a rising tone of concern in her voice.


“Oh, uh, it went well! What kind of chips did you get?” The shark questioned in return, wrapping her mechanical arms around the rabbit in a warm embrace. After parting from the bunny, she took the seat across from where the brown rabbit was sitting, watching her with an anxious expression. All of her thoughts were completely focused on the date at hand, except for the small seeds of doubt with what Monica does for a living.


Taking her seat back across the shark and pinning her ears to the chair, the bunny let out a soft sigh. “Nothing special, just sour cream and onion.” The emerald eyes looked towards Nakari with a smile, slowly fading as she watched the shark’s expression. “Is something wrong? You look a little… uncomfy?” She asked, leaning in closer to the shark, almost hiding the little chip basket in her shadow. 


“Well, I was… just curious about what you do? For a living, you know?” The shark asked, looking into the vibrant and intense eyes of her partner. “I don’t think you’ve ever told me anything about it, so… I’m curious? Is it… anything I should be worried about?” The nervousness was palpable as she asked the somewhat hard question, looking directly in those bright emerald eyes, only to see them turn away! Nakari’s indigo eyes widened as she was able to shock the rabbit, watching blush fill the furred cheeks enough to make the bunny look away.


With a soft, nervous laugh, Monica rubbed the back of her head allowing her hand to roll against the back of her ponytail. “It’s nothing… bad, just awkward to talk about?” She said leaning back into her chair, picking up the menu while clearly trying to make it seem she wasn’t caught off guard by the shark’s question. “It’s, well… more bedroom stuff? You know how I’m poly and such?” Monica began to explain in a roundabout way without going straight into the point, watching as Nakari slowly nodded with a confused expression.


“You mean, uh… like… ‘pillow fights?’” The shark said with air quotes and emphasis on the pillow fights, starting to piece together an idea of what the bunny meant. Noticing the blush only flare up more and the slow nod of the rabbit, the amputee slowly nodded in understanding. “I, uh… never did anything involving any pillow fight stuff or… you know?” The said, flustered as she talked about sexual stuff in euphemism in public, giving nervous glances around. “As long as you… stay safe and all that, I don’t mind? Maybe I could… get involved? If you want me to?”


The blush on the rabbit’s face increased as she stared forward in confusion and surprise at the rather bold suggestion from the presumably virgin shark. “I-I… hm… maybe? Not… any time soon, though?” She said, trying to get the attention from the waiter with the wave of her hand. “How about we just… play around tonight? If you want to do… any of that stuff?”


With a nod, the blushing Nakari smiled at the offer. “Y-yea! I think we should just… eat and talk about it later? After my practice?” She watched as an older looking male fox approached with a clipboard, being their waiter for their lunch.


“After practice?” Monica said with a smug smile on her lips, snickering quietly to herself as she whispered. “You’ll be all hot and sweaty just to take a shower and be hot and sweaty again, hm?” She said with a knowing look before leaning back into her chair, starting to order a veggie sandwich from the fox.


Nakari was momentarily stunned and flustered by the comment, her fingers twitching against the laminated menu within her grasp. After a pause, she gave her own order to the fox who stroad away to the counter. Her heart pounded in her chest like a jackhammer at how the jackrabbit so effortlessly played with her emotions. A shy smile was on her lips as she leaned forward, resting her mechanical elbows against the table, looking at Monica with interest and a slight bit of fear. They haven’t even begun eating and she learned some critical information about her new girlfriend, stuff that only enthralled her more to the soft brown bunny! It was only the beginning of their relationship and things were already escalating at an exponential pace.